AVS 60th International Symposium and Exhibition
    Surface Science Wednesday Sessions
       Session SS+AS-WeM

Paper SS+AS-WeM6
Chemical Mapping of Minerals and Meteorites for Origins of Life Research

Wednesday, October 30, 2013, 9:40 am, Room 202 A

Session: Catalysis in Prebiotic Chemistry (8:00-10:00 am)/Environmental Interfaces (10:40 am-12:00 pm)
Presenter: R.D. Gann, Georgia Institute of Technology
Authors: R.D. Gann, Georgia Institute of Technology
C. Pirim, Georgia Institute of Technology
T.M. Orlando, Georgia Institute of Technology
Correspondent: Click to Email
Surface analytical techniques such as Raman, x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and two-step laser desorption/ionization stand to shed considerable light on the chemistry that occurs on mineral surfaces and the surfaces of meteorites. The results of Raman and XPS analysis of the meteorite schreibersite, for instance, show a rich surface with phosphate and several impurity metals. Because this surface is potentially prebiotic, the chemistry involved has implications for the origins of life, and recent results within our center show it is capable of phosphorylation of relatively simple molecules. Analysis of other potentially prebiotic minerals such as pyrite are also under investigation with these techniques. Toward this goal, we have built a xenon tripling cell for vacuum-ultra-violet (10.5 eV) photoionization and a basic rastering UV desorption laser for direct detection of organic molecular analytes over 40 amu photons. The rastering allows spatial resolution for investigation of different domains of a mineral. This provides a nondestructive means for meteorite chemical analysis without the intervention of wet chemistry, which would potentially introduce molecules via reactions that would not otherwise happen. It also allows for detection of extremely small amounts of mass analytes.

This work was jointly supported by NSF and the NASA Astrobiology Program, under the NSF Center for Chemical Evolution, CHE-1004570